README

written by Radovan Garabík
e-mail: garabik@kassiopeia.juls.savba.sk
mountpy is a python script for quick automatic mounting and umounting of
external filesystems, especially suited for USB removable devices.
mountpy is developped on linux, and is meant for modern linux systems.
However, there is not much code linux-specific, so in theory it could
work on any POSIX system with similar semantics of setuid(2), you just
have to modify mount options.
Motivation: I successfully converted several computer illiterate users
to linux. While they are perfectly content and willing to learn to write
a command before accessing an external filesystem, and an another
command before removing the device, removable USB mass storage devices
bring a lot of variety - some of them have partition table, some of them
have not, they appear as different sd? devices, keeping /etc/fstab
updated is difficult, and users have problems finding out the correct
device (oce it is /dev/sda, the other time, with the same USB key,
/dev/sdb...).
This script tries to mount everything it can, probing all configured
devices with all possible filesystems, and creating mountpoints as needed.
Instalation:
make && make install
edit /etc/mountpy.conf to suit your needs
Usage:
There are 3 ways how to make mountpy run comfortably with root privileges:
1) install sudo, add this line to /etc/sudoers:
joesmith ALL = NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/mountpy, usr/bin/umountpy
to allow user joesmith use mountpy.
It you want to allow all the users use mountpy, change the line into:
ALL ALL = NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/mountpy, usr/bin/umountpy
and then run "sudo mountpy" and "sudo umountpy"
2) install super, add these lines to /etc/super.tab:
mountpy /usr/bin/mountpy.py joesmith
umountpy /usr/bin/umountpy joesmith
to allow user joesmith to run mountpy,
or:
mountpy /usr/bin/mountpy.py .*
umountpy /usr/bin/umountpy .*
to give access to all the users, and run "super mountpy" or "super umountpy"
3) make the C wrapper script setuid root
log in as root and type:
chmod u+s /usr/bin/mountpy
Be aware that giving all the users rights to execute mountpy can be a
security risk, if an exploitable bug is found in mountpy. This is
especially true in the 3rd case. Therefore, it is recommended to allow
only selected users to run mountpy, and use super or sudo if possible.
use:
$ mountpy
to mount all the devices. Short summary will be printed. By default, you
can find mounted filesystems under /media
use:
$ mountpy -u
or
$ umountpy
to umount everything it can. Short summary will be printed, with warning if some device
could not have been umounted
$ mountpy device
tries to mount only one device, e.g.:
$ mountpy sda
$ mountpy sda fd0 cdrom
use -v to verbosely print what is going on, -vv to get even more information.
Security:
Do not install setuid mountpy on servers with multiuser access! It has no use
in such an envirnment, anyway. While there is nothing directly
exploitable, it is easy to trick python into executing something other
It is perfectly suited for a workstation or a notebook, if a user already
knows the root password, or in similar circumstances.
Using sudo or super is safer, because you can select users who are
allowed to run mountpy, but eventual bug in mountpy or python could
allow them to gain unauthorized root access anyway.
Special care has beed taken to avoid accidentally removing directories
during umount, so the script should be safe. Of course, bugs are always
possible. Using broken hardware (bad floppy, cdrom, USB key) can hang
the program, or even crash the kernel, as with ordinary mount.